


Hedwig is a Cat

by Chelonie



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Cats, Complete, Don't copy to another site, Familiars, Gen, Hedwig is a cat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-14
Updated: 2019-11-14
Packaged: 2021-01-30 19:07:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21433219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chelonie/pseuds/Chelonie
Summary: Harry didn't need an owl. He should have had a cat instead.
Relationships: Hedwig & Harry Potter
Comments: 25
Kudos: 216
Collections: Into the Catverse





	Hedwig is a Cat

Hedwig should have been a cat.

A snowy white cat, with a few grey speckles, and the tendency to expect bacon at breakfast and plenty of attention the rest of the time. 

A cat, who would have lived in Gryffindor Tower, rather than the Owlery, and would have snuggled a lonely boy with purrs during times he was being ostracised by his schoolmates. 

Owls carry the post, but they can’t give you anyone to write to. During the school year, Harry never writes to the Dursleys. During the summer, Harry is often not permitted to write to his friends. When Sirius is on the run, he isn’t able to use his distinctive owl. 

Hedwig carried letters between Harry and Hagrid. A cat could do that.

* * *

The first year, Hedwig-the-cat would be Hedwig-the-kitten. She probably gets into trouble spilling ink pots and tearing up socks. She would sneak into Snape’s first potions class in Harry’s bag and give him even more to take points over. She would avoid DADA class, with its horrible stench and dark magic miasma.

She would be welcome in Transfiguration class. While she may be strict with children, Minerva has a soft spot for kittens.

* * *

Harry’s first summer back at Privet Drive, he doesn’t get any letters from his friends. Harry tells Ron to write first, since he doesn’t have an owl, but he writes Hermione muggle style, stealing a stamp from the kitchen drawer. 

Hedwig doesn’t make noise, and makes her way in and out of the house through Harry’s window using acts of acrobatics and climbing skills that always amaze Harry to see. Since Uncle Vernon never has to see or hear her, and cats are not ‘freakish’ pets, he doesn’t complain too much about Hedwig’s existence. Which is to say he only threatens to take her to the Battersea Cats Home about once or twice a week. (Harry preemptively asks batty Mrs Figg if she can take in Hedwig for the rest of the summer if that were to happen, and she is happy to say yes.)

It is a good thing that Hedwig is in the room when the Weasleys arrive in the flying Ford Anglia to break him out, or he might not have gone. She can slip out even through the bars - still a sleek cat at a year old. But she is home that night - perhaps some feline intuition - and so she goes with Harry to the Burrow.

The Burrow is a fine place for a young cat, with gnomes and chickens to chase, and plenty of humans to beg food off of. 

Nobody understands why Hedwig stopped allowing Ginny to touch her shortly after the trip to Diagon Alley. Perhaps if they’d known what sort of diary she’d started writing in, it would have made more sense to them.

The second year passes, and when the murmurs of Harry being the Heir of Slytherin start going around, the muggleborns say ‘Of course he’s a Dark Lord - he’s got a white cat, doesn’t he?’ 

The magical raised kids don’t understand the reference, which leads to trying to explain cinema and James Bond and the Godfather and Cruella de Ville, which only leads to more confusion, until finally Justin Finch-Fletchly says “Listen, it’s a muggle-born thing. And he’s muggle-raised, so he knows it’s a sign of evil. He’s using it to declare his intentions.”

Hermione tells him that for someone who was on the Eton list, he sounds awfully stupid, and over the next few weeks Hedwig is charmed to have her fur read “Seriously Evil Cat.” Harry is worried, but the Twins also add quite a few protective charms to her collar. One of them causes several Ravenclaws to speak in nothing but meows for a full day.

Hedwig is loyal to Harry, but she is just a cat. She is _ ever _so fond of Lockhart. He gives her excellent treats during class time while Harry is acting out scenes from his books. Perhaps that’s why Harry and Ron take Lockhart with them into the Chamber, thinking that Hedwig’s good opinion is based on more than sardine offerings.

* * *

His third year, Sirius Black escapes and Harry runs away from home after blowing up Aunt Marge. Harry and Hedwig end up in the Leaky Cauldron.

By the time the Weasleys arrive, Scabbers is sick. Hedwig plays her normal game of chase-the-rat that she’s been playing since she was a kitten, but this time, Ron is furious because Scabbers is sick! Sure Hedwig knows that Scabbers isn’t a normal rat, but she grew up in a magic castle where there’s a Professor Cat-Person, so it doesn’t strike her as sinister. It’s a Rat-Person, who is fun to chase!

(Hermione has owned an owl all this time, of course. How else would she write her parents while she was away from home? It’s a lovely Tawny Owl named Oscar.)

Padfoot and Hedwig meet at Hogwarts and he manages to convince the white cat that Scabbers is a threat to her boy. That’s when the rat hunting starts in earnest! Ron is furious that Hedwig has become a murder-machine. Harry protests that she’s just doing what comes naturally to cats, but Ron insists that Hedwig be barred from the boys’ dorm. 

Hermione agrees to keep her, but she is studying so hard that she isn’t always aware, and Hedwig finds ways to get in, darting in and around the legs of the other 3rd year boys, and when Ron finally discovers blood and white hairs on his pillowcase, he stops talking to Harry. Not even the lure of Harry’s new Firebolt is enough to earn his forgiveness.

When Hermione turns the Firebolt over to McGonagall, Harry loses trust in both friends in one day. Resentfully, he lets Hedwig back into his dorm. “Doesn’t matter if she’s here if Scabbers is dead, does it?”

Friends make up, and the year comes to an end in the Shrieking Shack, where Hedwig sits and purrs on Sirius Black’s chest when Harry is prepared to kill him. The story comes out, and so does the moon and a werewolf and a flock of Dementors, and Harry tells Hermione that he thought he’d seen his father, until he realises that it was himself, that he is the one who must cast the Patronus. When the fully corporal cat emerges and hisses and scratches at the Dementors until they flee, he isn’t surprised that she looks just like Hedwig. He names his patronus Hedy.

Prongs never runs again. But that’s okay. Harry may look just like James, but he isn’t his father. It isn’t his job to replace the fourth member of the Marauders that night, or any night. 

Sirius escapes on Buckbeak, and Harry returns to the Dursleys.

* * *

Fourth year brings nightmares of Voldemort and pains in his scar and somehow Hedwig is always in his bed when he wakes up, ready to purr and knead against him and coax him back to sleep. It brings further ostracisation from Ron when his name comes out of the Goblet. It brings dragons and dances and girls and, unknown to Harry, an argument amongst the judges of the Tournament when a spell reveals that Hedwig the cat is the individual that Harry loves the most. Ludo thinks it would be fabulous to use Hedwig, Percy is neutral, but the other school Headmasters believe it would give Harry an unfair advantage to have such a small creature to retrieve. Dumbledore points out that a wet and cold cat would probably not be terribly happy once it breaks the surface of the water. McGonagall says it is unconscionable to use an animal as a hostage, though somehow no one objects to using an eight year old girl. Eventually Ron is chosen.

The night after the final task, Sirius leaves Harry in the Hospital Wing, injured and traumatised, to follow Dumbledore’s orders. But Hedwig is with her boy. She lets him cry into her fur that night, and many other nights that summer.

* * *

Fifth year, Harry and Hedwig are brought to Grimmauld Place, where Hedwig stalks Doxies. No one notices that she won’t go in the room where the locket is stored. They go back to school and Umbridge begins her foul reign. She tries to use her Inquisitorial Powers to claim Hedwig from Harry, which terrifies him far more than a scarred hand. Hedwig runs, and later Flitwick charms her to look nearly identical to Mrs Norris. Umbridge assigns Harry more detentions until he complies with her order to turn over his pet, but he continues to claim that she ran away. Hedwig is in his bed every night, purring against him, and during the day she continues to hide in plain sight. Not even Filch figures out the difference.

* * *

Sixth year, Hedwig is back to her beautiful self while Harry learns about horcruxes and Tom Riddle and tries to find out what Malfoy is doing in the Room of Requirement.

* * *

After Dumbledore’s funeral, when Harry makes his decision that he isn’t returning next year, he has to separate from his dearest friend. He will not risk Hedwig’s life on the horcrux hunt. He considers leaving her at the Burrow, but they might need to flee in a hurry. The safest place for her is at Hogwarts. He asks Professor McGonagall to keep her safe over the summer. She guesses that he isn’t planning to return, but simply promises to colour charm Hedwig again for safety. Snape, the consummate spy, recognises Hedwig of course, no matter what colour she is. He hates Potter, but not enough to kill his familiar. Harry and his friends return to Hogwarts, and Hedwig is there to greet him, but he can only give her a quick cuddle and kiss on the nose before telling her to hide and be safe. 

Hedwig knows when her boy dies. She feels it all the way in her soul. She knows when he returns to life. In the aftermath of the battle, it is Hedwig that Harry clings to. Hedwig who sees his tears. Hedwig who is there during his PTSD nightmares.

* * *

Probably after the war, he buys an owl. By that time, he has people to write to. 

He’s probably smart enough to buy a native owl, with plain colouring. He knows that Harry Potter’s owl might get attention if it is too distinctive. 

But his cat Hedwig - once again snowy white with grey specks, with more protective charms on her collar than a Hit Wizard - he is convinced that she is the most beautiful cat in the world. Because she is.

**Author's Note:**

> Hagrid: Tell yeh what, I'll get yer animal. Not a toad, toads went outta fashion years ago, yeh'd be laughed at - an' I don' like cats, they make me sneeze.  
Harry: Riiiiiiiight. Because that's the best way to choose an animal. Other people's allergies.


End file.
